How this AZ girl stays cool in the summer...

We spent most of yesterday morning at Grandpa Steve's house!

It is May in Arizona which means one thing: it is hot.

Spending time at Grandpa Steve's house means one thing: something has to be cleaned.

Lucky for me, yesterday the project was my car!

My little Arizona girl!

While the boys emptied, vacuumed, washed my car, and changed my tire, we played in the water!
And watered the vegetation!

My Husband...

For those of you who don't know, my husband loves to dance.

At our most recent wedding, I was able to capture 13 seconds of his solo to his all-time favorite song, "Billy Jean."

Sorry for the poor quality.

A visit with Auntie Erin!

This was a busy Memorial Weekend for us!

Conor and Maria were married on Saturday (it was a beautiful wedding) and it included the rehearsal on Friday night. Stevie and I were fortunate enough to be able to stay over night at Starr Pass Resort on Saturday while my parents took care of Shyla.

And Shyla's god-parents, Dan and Erin, came into town for a visit from CA! We love spending as much time with them as we possibly can! Erin and I especially love it when the boys play golf together so we can catch-up (i.e. gossip). Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Uncle Dan, but I was able to snap a few of Auntie Erin with Shyla:

My Birth Plan

If you google "Birth Plan" the search will return over 38 million responses. Seriously!

When I was pregnant with Shyla I did not construct a birth-plan. I knew that my doctor would take good care of us and we would end up leaving the hospital with a healthy baby girl. THAT was my birth plan.

I kind of feel that even if you make a "plan" the baby has his or her own "plan" that will definitely supersede your own, so what's the point.

We had a wonderful experience at the hospital where we delivered!

With one exception....the lactation consultation.

So, this time around I am constructing a very specific, but concise, birth plan:

1) Come home with one of these:

2) And don't let a lactation consultant into the room.

Period. The End. El Fin.

FGF 5-27-11

Today is an extra-special edition of Feel Good Friday! Yesterday was our last day of the school year with kids! Today I am in my classroom: cleaning, organizing, blogging, getting ready for lunch, etc. It is so nice and quiet.

Good Use of a Groupon!

I love groupons!

I get so excited each morning to see what the groupon is for and when it's something I can use, I get super excited to buy it and hope that enough other people also find it useful enough that it goes through.

A few months ago I bought a groupon for a 1 month membership to The Little Gym. We went once for a "free introductory class" and then activated our groupon this past weekend.

Since I am really big and uncomfortable now, Stevie did the class with Shyla. She got about 3/4 through it before realizing that I was watching through the window and then demanded that I join them.

The pictures are blurry because they were taken through a window, but you'll still get the idea of how cute she looked!

Before class, watching the babies finish their session.

Getting ready on the rings!

And swinging, swinging, swinging, on the rings (probably her favorite apparatus!)

Two and Fabulous

Okay, so this should conclude Shyla's 2nd birthday celebrations!

Today we had a party at the park!

This was the invitation we sent out.

These were the cupcakes I made.

This is an up-close picture of the cupcakes, complete with a monkey finger puppet in each one!

We asked our friends to bring coloring books and coloring supplies to be donated to the Gospel Rescue Mission in lieu of presents for Shyla. She certainly doesn't want for anything. We buy her much more than she could ever need. We thought this would be a thoughtful aspect to the party and we certainly have generous friends! I am looking forward to delivering these supplies to the Gospel Rescue Mission and the kids that will really benefit from them!

The newly renovated park! This was "my park" growing up, but it certainly didn't look like this!

Sisters! The fact is, I am huge. A second fact is that when I stand next to a pole, I look even larger.

My BFF Beth, her hubby Dave, and their adorable munchkin Sadie!

Grandma pushing Zac and Shyla on the swings!

Two and fabulous!

Stevie and Dave having a little too much fun on the playground!

Shyla did not like being the center of attention during the Happy Birthday song (either that or she just didn't understand why she wasn't already digging into the cupcake) so I had to help her blow out the candles!

My beautiful friends and babies! I love these ladies SO, SO, SO much and I don't know what I would do without them. I am truly blessed!

The ever-popular quest to get a good family picture!

Chelsea's quest to get a good family picture. Just ignore the creep-o in the background.

Shyla's favorite Andy and Al!

"Oops! I fell down but that's okay because I'm the birthday girl and I don't seem to notice when I fall down anyway!"

We think the party was a success! We got to see all our friends, play, eat, laugh, and enjoy! Isn't that what celebrations are about?

PS - I have many more pictures but I haven't asked permission from everyone to include them on the blog.

Shyla's Actual Birthday!

In our family we often celebrate birthdays multiple times. And Shyla's 2nd is no different!

Yesterday was her actual 2nd birthday! It is so hard for me to believe that my baby is 2 years old! The time has gone so (too) quickly. I just want to bask in each and every moment (except, of course, the ones in which she is acting like a 2 year old...but that's another story for another day.)

We bought these cupcakes for her teachers from a local cupcake shop called, "Cupcakes." Clever.

We also bought some mini-muffins for her to share with her friends, but I didn't think they were worthy of a picture. Sorry Fry's bakery.

Anyway, Shyla had been sick for the 5 days leading up to her birthday. She stayed home from school for 3 of the days, and was unhappy for the 2 that she was there (which left me feeling worried and defeated).

Against my better judgement, after picking her up from school yesterday we went to Baskin Robbins for her free birthday scoop. As you can see she somewhat enjoyed it:

We are having her birthday party tomorrow and I feel like she is finally feeling better (knock on wood, please). So, be on the lookout for more birthday posts!

Zoo Time!

Last Sunday Shyla and I went to the zoo with my parents and Zac and Lilly! We love the zoo. The Tucson zoo is the perfect size for us, and we are all members so we can go for an hour or so and not feel as if we aren't getting our money's worth.

It is also nice to know that our membership dollars support an entity that focus on conservation and doing what is best for animals.

Zac wanted to ride the fake elephant!
And so Lilly did also, of course!
Shyla was wearing a new dress that Auntie Kirsten and Uncle Jim sent for her birthday!

She learned how to stick her tongue out from Grandpa (see last picture for evidence).
And she even managed to keep her hat on for about half the visit!
It's always nice to take a rest with grandpa! Still unsure why he is sticking his tongue out.

Shyla's Birthday Dinner

Shyla's birthday is Friday but we celebrated last Saturday evening because my grandparents are getting ready to head back to Michigan for the summer and I wanted them to be a part of the loud, chaotic, fun!

I didn't take many pictures during or before dinner but the kids had fun playing in Shyla's new playhouse and everyone ate well.

Then we had cake - the real celebration!

The cake was an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. I couldn't have any because of my GD, but I heard it was yummy!

We sang and Shyla loved it! It was a much different reaction than she had to her 1st birthday! In fact she made us sing twice (except Daddy who, she dictated, wasn't allowed to sing at all).

And we ate cake!

I cannot believe my baby girl is almost 2!

FGF 5-13-11

Happy Friday the 13th!

Well, we officially have Harper Ann's outfit to wear home from the hospital! She is scheduled to be born, via C-section, on Friday, July 15th at 7:30 AM.

We could name her "Daddy"

Last December Stevie and I went to Las Vegas for the Rock 'n Roll Half-Marathon.

It was the last time he saw his IPOD-Touch.

With Father's Day coming up in about a month I decided the Shyla and I would get him a new IPOD-Nano that he can use for running and Harper can use for night-time music.

I ordered said IPOD yesterday morning at about 8:00 AM, with "Daddy" engraved on it.

***************************************************************************************

This morning at approximately 6:30 AM I reached into an old purse and pulled out the IPOD-Touch.

Stevie was thrilled.

I was not.

I told him about his Father's Day gift ordered just 22 hours before.

"Can't we return it?" He asked.

"I had it engraved with 'Daddy.'" I replied.

"We can name her 'Daddy'" was his solution.

Like a Hot Knife through Butter

Disclaimer: this post is not about Shyla (directly, at least) and does thankfully not contain pictures. I won't be offended if you leave now. Go ahead.

I have a Love-Hate Relationship with swimming.

Allow me to explain:

• I love the weightlessness
• I love how cool it is
• I love that it's a good workout that doesn't seem like one
• I love that there is never soreness
• I love that I can get vitamin D without getting a sunburn

However...

• I hate swimsuits
• I hate(d) meets
• I hate combing chlorine out of my hair
• I hate toe cramps
• I hate the idea of sharing a lane

But, I recently discovered that swimming might be my only true "me-time" of my very busy (but blessed) days.

Realizing that I absolutely need to get 30 minutes on exercise almost everyday, I have started doing some lap swimming in between work and picking up Shyla.

It's not pretty, but it feels good and I think it's helping to regulate my blood sugars.

When I was younger my swim coach used to say that I looked "Like a Hot Knife through Butter" when I swam. It is now more like a whisk cutting through a head of cabbage. But again, it feels good and it's providing me with some "me-time!"

Thank you Elmo!

Bath-time has recently been a struggle.

And by "struggle" I mean a workout in which I (being 7 months pregnant) end up bathing a standing, screaming, crying, bawling, scratching, hitting little girl by dumping water on her head as quickly as I can get it over with.

But then the Easter Bunny came and left a basket filled with bath-time goodies, complete with Elmo on the packaging! Brilliant!

Shyla got Elmo bubble bath, Elmo fizzy tub colors, and foam words to play with in the bath.

She gets to choose 2 color tablets for each bath. She obviously started with blue.

And likes to hold the tablet rather than let it completely dissolve in the water.

This is just a random shot of her pretty toes. This time it was Daddy who made them pretty! What a guy! He thinks he has a future in this business!

It's hard to tell from this picture but we made purple water and then brought down all of the words to play with!

And lined them up. She is really good at recognizing most of the pictures.

And then we emptied the tub (and said bye-bye to the water) and she continued to play! Now that's the smile we used to see at bath-time!